All times EST and on SpeedTV

Practice Fri, Jul 9 9am LIVE
Qualifying Sat, Jul 10 9am LIVE
British Grand Prix Sun, Jul 11 7:30am LIVE

One of the few races IMHO that Ferrari has a chance of getting their butts kicked.

 

What about this race would make that possible?

 

History has always suited Michelin at this track unless of course the British weather kicks in and then its going to be a test of whether the Michelin rain tires have improved or not. Last year the Bridgestone rain tires were 3 seconds faster than the similar Michelins. Also Ferrari has had bad luck with wrecks, dnfs, etc at this track. Even though Ferrari has won the last 2 years they seem to always falter at this track. McLaren on the other hand has 5 wins since 88 at this track and Williams with 6 from the same year as opposed to Ferrari's 4 wins.

Also being Button's home race I would love to see him win.

 

Free 1:

Barichello, Schumacher and Montoya take top 3.

Davidon - 5th
Button- 10th
Sato 13th

Free 2:

Raikonnen, Fisichella, Schumacher take top 3

Button - 5th
Sato - 9th
Davidson - 16th

Free 3:

Raikonnen, Button, Schumacher take top 3

Sato - 8th

Free 4:

Raikonnen, Button, Barichello take top 3

Sato - 16th

 

Pre qualifying:

1. BUTTON
2. MASSA
3. PANIS
4. PANTANO
5. TRULLI
6. RAIKONNEN
7. ALONSO
8. DA MATTA
9. BRUNI
10. BAUMGARTNER
11. COULTHARD
12. BARICHELLO
13. SATO
14. M. SCHUMACHER
15. MONTOYA
16. GENE
17. WEBBER
18. KLEIN
19. FISICHELLA
20. HEIDFELD

MS spun the car and Barichello went on the grass. All drivers after Montoya (including him) are going slow because they fear rain, they want to run slow so they come out earlier in the qualifying session. Massa, Da Matta, Panis, Pantano, Bruni, Baumgartner only ones so far that drove seriously since the first few guys.

Note: Alonso, Baumgartner, Bruni and Fisichella will lose 10 spots because of engine changes.

 

In watching the live timing, they say this about Sato's S3 portion of his lap:

What's the rational behind that?

 

Session 1 had enough drama to keep me thinking. Drivers going slow deliberately to avoid the rain. All of this again supports the need for the old qualifying system. Because with this one lap flyer the best man may not start on the pole. Silverstone has its own micro climate and it can rain one minute and be bright and sunny the next. We really need to get rid of one lap flyers.

 

If Sato goes quick he will place higher in pre qualifying. This means he starts in reverse order in qualifying. Button took pole, so he'll be last man out in qualifying. Now if the rain holds off then Sato may get a quick lap in with dry tires and people like Alonso may have to use rain tires thus at a disadvantage. The teams foresee rain coming in session 2, so they slowed the guys down to take advantage of current dry conditions and run in dry weather tires and qualify faster and when the rain comes the other guys will have to use wets and thus going slower.

 

1. RAIKONNEN
2. BARICHELLO
3. BUTTON
4. M.SCHUMACHER
5. TRULLI
6. COULTHARD
7. MONTOYA
8. SATO
9. WEBBER
10. MASSA
11. PANIS
12. GENE
13. DA MATTA
14. KLEIN
15. PANTANO
16. ALONSO (+10 spots)
17. HEIDFELD
18. BRUNI (+10 spots)
19. BAUMGARTNER (+10 spots)
20. FISICHELLA (+10 spots)

Notes: Fisichella choses not to run because he is losing 10 spots anyway.

 

Bump... should be a great race tomorrow.